longer than that usually gained from history, and lead to the more faithful study of history besides. The most serious question entertained of the accuracy of this picture will turn probably on the temper of the Reformer. It is made to appear more gentle and pleasant than is usual in the portraits given of him. No doubt it is the fairest side of the man. With equal truth, he might be drawn more severe, morose, and violent. We see it sometimes in this sketch. We still think it substantially a true sketch. The picture has commonly been too dark. Luther was not the sour, rash, hard, and vindictive man, that some make him. Saving a sad morbid tendency from nature and education, an imagined call to mingle and fight with all the Devils, against whom he did contend most manfully, suppose there have been few lighter spirits or happier men. very child of nature and song, a devotee to the arts, and a keen relisher of all humor, when we remember the superstitions of his childhood, the bigotry of his age, and the burdens and provocations of his peculiar mission, we honor and admire him. We love him, when we read his letters to "Catharine the Queen," and to "my dear little boy." So too when we see his love of fables, his translation of Æsop going in company with that of the Psalms, and his boyish delight in writing as well as reading the fabulous.

we

A

Often, indeed, perhaps as the prevailing nature, Luther was pensive, suffering at times a dreadful melancholy. "Because my manner is sometimes gay and joyous, many think that I am always treading on roses. God knows what is in my heart. There is nothing in this life which gives me pleasure; I am tired of it. May the Lord come quickly and take me hence." Yet strongly and beautifully does he commend cheerfulness. Gayety and a light heart, in all virtue and decorum, are the best medicine for the young, or rather for all. — Ride, hunt with your friends, amuse yourself in their company. Solitude and melancholy are poison. They are deadly to all, but above all to the young." This from a Monk! Did he not know that of which he speaks, by all he had felt and seen? It is said that his Catharine tried him. Some give her a different face and tongue from those she wears in this book. There are writers who liken her to Petruchio's lady, of the same name. We choose not to believe it. We have not the proof, nor, unless it comes to us, will we seek it or accept it. If it is drawn from such passages as the following, we will draw the opposite.

"I must have patience with the Pope, with my boarders, my servants, with Catharine de Bora, and with everybody else. In short, I live a life of patience."—"If I were going to make love again, I would carve an obedient woman out of marble, in despair of finding one in any other way.'

In the temper of his controversies, Luther unquestionably sinned sometimes, if not often. He would have been a saint, beyond all common saints, if he had not. To think of all that he had to encounter, of the enormous heap of corruption which he was called to remove, with little thought at first of its immensity, or of the thorough work he must make of it, -to think of his tools and allies, the insane and pernicious folly of Carlostadt, the far more formidable, and as he viewed it, treacherous opposition of Erasmus, his early friend, and the scholar of the age, to consider the character and power of his opposers, end the whole complexion of the sixteenth century, does it not incline you to forgive all that you see of impetuosity and virulence ? We desire never to veil or extenuate the sin of wrath and bitterness, least of all in the Christian teacher and reformer. So far as Luther was guilty of these, let him bear it. But we do suppose he set the matter in very nearly its true light, when he said, if Middleton reports aright, "I am accused of rudeness and immodesty, particularly by adversaries, who have not a grain of candor or good manners. If, as they say, I am saucy and impudent, I am, however, simple, open, and sincere, without any of their guile, dissimulation, or treachery." And when he vents his most cutting sarcasm, with all its coarseness, there is such a mingling of good-natured raillery and honest truth-telling, that we must enjoy it, if it be naughty; as in disposing thus summarily of the stupid Briefs of Pope Adrian:

"It is mortifying to be obliged to give such good German in answer to such wretched Latin. But it is the pleasure of God to confound Antichrist in everything, to leave him neither lit-, erature nor language. They say that he has gone mad and fallen into dotage. It is a shame to address us Germans in such Latin as this, and to send to sensible people such a clumsy and absurd interpretation of Scripture."

The Bulls of Pope Clement he tosses up in similar sport. "The Pope tells us in his answer that he is willing to throw open the golden doors. It is long since we opened all doors in Germany. But these Italian scaramouches have never re

stored a farthing of the gain they have made by their indulgences, dispensations, and other diabolical inventions. Good Pope Clement, all your clemency and gentleness won't pass here. We'll buy no more indulgences. Golden doors and bulls get ye home again. Look to the Italians for payment. They who know ye will buy you no more. Thanks be to God, we know that they who possess and believe the Gospel, enjoy an uninterrupted jubilee. Excellent Pope, what care we for your bulls? You may save your seals and your parchment. They are in bad odor now-a-days."

And here is a characteristic scrap from the Memorabilia. "God made the Priest. The Devil set about an imitation; but he made the tonsure too large, and produced a Monk."

Once more, we offer a brief extract, in a far different strain, from a letter written, we believe, to Erasmus, and showing a consciousness of possible error on his own part, and a nobleness of mind for which Luther has not always had credit.

"I daily perceive how difficult it is to overcome long-cherished scruples. Oh, what pain has it cost me, though the Scripture is on my side, to defend myself to my own heart for having dared singly to resist the Pope, and to denounce him as Antichrist! What have been the afflictions of my bosom ! How often, in the bitterness of my soul, have I pressed myself with the Papist's argument, Art thou alone wise? are all others in error? have they been mistaken for so long a time? What if you are yourself mistaken, and are dragging with you so many souls into eternal condemnation ? Thus did I reason

with myself, till Jesus Christ, by his own infallible word, tranquillized my heart, and sustained it against this argument, as a reef of rocks thrown up against the waves laughs at all their fury."

We part from honest Martin Luther, as he has been set before us in this most agreeable volume, with the pleasant hope of meeting him again soon, and seeing him longer, in the great work on the Reformation, which D'Aubigné is sending us from Geneva, of which delightful tidings have reached our ears, and from a Review of which, in a late number of the Edinburgh, we have taken our last quotations.

H.

NOTICES AND INTELLIGENCE.

The Poets of America: illustrated by one of her Painters. Edited by John Keese. New York: S. Colman. 12mo. pp. 284. This is a volume of specimens of American Poets, remarkable for the great beauty of type, paper, and illustrations, and intended, we suppose, as a sort of annual. We do not mean to imply in this that the literary part of the undertaking is not sufficiently well executed. The editor appears to have been competent to his task. The selections are not, indeed, in every instance to our liking. But when the choice ranges through so wide a field, no single selection could be made, perhaps, that should suit every taste. Still, as we judge, Mr. Keese has shown himself too " wide a liker." If the work is to be continued, as is partly promised, we should say that a little more exclusiveness in his principles of choice, a little less good-natured indulgence to the claims of new men" — there are more than twenty names in the table of contents we never before heard of in our Parnassus would present volumes of a more permanent value, well worthy a place in any library, and moreover, offering subjects more worthy the great talent of the artist who illustrates them. As it is, the present volume cannot fail to meet with a favorable reception on the part of the public. It is altogether one of the most attractive publications of the American Press. We are particularly pleased with it as another instance of the introduction of the fashion of pictorial illustration into our ornamental printing. This, we believe, is but the second example of it. There is a freedom, a grace, a wild beauty about it, which to us have charms beyond the formal print. The artist, too, rises nearer to a level with the poet upon whom he waits. His illustrations take the rank of a running commentary on the author, and, as happens elsewhere, the commentary sometimes surpasses in value and beauty the text, - the artist rises above the poet and novelist. This is quite true, we think, of the little volume which led the way in this kind of printing, entitled "A Christmas Gift from Fairy Land," published about a year since. "The Painter" there showed himself a man of a most graceful and fertile genius, which, perhaps, the author did not, - and gave us a book of designs more creditable to American Art than any we remember to have seen. The illustrations of the volume of American Poets are from the same pencil, and though not equal to those of the Fairy Gift, the principal fault we have to find with them is, that they are too few. It is a sad disappointment to turn over so many leaves and not see their beauty

upon the broad margin. We hope that in another volume the publishers will be encouraged by the success of their first attempt to invite the artist to a more free and unrestrained indul. gence of his fancy. A more acceptable offering could not be made to the lovers of beautiful books. We would suggest that in another volume the type should not be changed in the text. The effect is bad. Let the illustrations wander between the verses and around them, as the margin will allow, - the verses, as the artist may desire, being occasionally thrown farther apart. We object, too, on the score of taste, to party-colored prints; except in the case of works for children. Black and white alone are classical.

Anatomical, Pathological, and Therapeutic Researches on the Yellow Fever of Gibraltar of 1828; by P. CH. A. Louis, Physician to the Hotel Dieu, &c. &c. Translated from the manuscript by G. C. SHATTUCK, jr. M. D. - The Memoirs of James Jackson, jr. first familiarized to us the name of M. Louis. Since the publication of that beautiful biography, translations of his principal works have been published in this country, and regarded by those best qualified to judge, as important accessions to medical science. We have read the treatise on Yellow Fever with much interest. Of its professional merits it falls not within our province, nor are we competent, to speak; but as a specimen of clear statement, sound reasoning, and the application of rigidly philosophical principles, to the department of science which has been most loose and doubtful, it deserves to be carefully studied. The translator's introduction is on this point full of good sense. If medicine ever attain to the certainty which belongs to other branches of inquiry, it must be through the same exact and carefully recorded observations, which have been ap, plied by astronomers to the planets, and by geologists to the earth. In this way only can each generation profit by the labors of those who have gone before. This is what M. Louis has been laboring to accomplish in his profession; and whatever may be the value of the particular results to which he may arrive, we cannot but regard this and his other works as laying the only true foundation for a series of observations, which, if carried out as they are begun, must eventually lead to a knowledge of disease, its causes, laws, preventives, and remedies, which will prove to be of the utmost importance to mankind. For this reason we rejoice in the circulation of his works; and it is particularly a matter of congratulation, that the young men of the profession are entering with zeal into his mode of investigation, and VOL. XXVII 3D s. VOL. IX. NO. III.

52